This computer company has over 30,000 employees worldwide among them approximately 2000 employees are constantly traveling for various purposes. Every month, the accounting department of the company used 12 people to audit travel expenses on handwritten employees’ report and process reimbursement checks. The complexity of the travel expenses of the company was mainly due to that large portion of these travelling related to U.S. government contracts. All these expenses must be scrutinized for compliance with government regulations such as stipulated per diem rate for different cities through out the world, personal phone calls, etc. Even tips to waiter/waitress are regulated.

When the accounting department of the company was seeking solutions to reduce manpower and errors, Kao & Kao was consulted. Kao & Kao proposed the following solution:

As described on the diagram, Kao & Kao computerized the company’s travel expenses reporting system and all expenses reported on the travel expense form has to go through a "filtering" system. This filtering system is a database which composed of all the regulations such as per diem rates for different cities, and all other travel codes dictated by the government. After filtering, only 10% of the forms submitted are "kicked out" for audit and 90% of the forms submitted electronically show no exception and can be processed for reimbursement immediately. Thus, much manpower was saved and error rate was reduced.

Kao & Kao C.P.A.'s
1848 Lincoln Blvd., #200, Santa Monica, CA 90404    Tel:(310)396-5448